Officer Shot After Stopping Car in Brooklyn

By JAMES BARRON

Published: May 2, 1990

A veteran police officer was shot in the neck and critically wounded early yesterday by a man he had stopped for driving a stolen car the wrong way on a one-way street in Brooklyn, the police said.

The officer, Harold Ortiz, 43 years old, of Port Jefferson, L.I., was taken to Kings County Hospital, where doctors, using medical techniques pioneered there, struggled to stop bleeding in his neck. Officer Ortiz was in critical condition in a coma last night, the police and hospital officials said.

After questioning at least six people throughout the day, the police charged Gary Francis, 24 years old, of 1055 Willmohr Street in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, with attempted murder, possession of a deadly weapon and felonious assault.

Deputy Chief Joseph DeMartino, the Brooklyn chief of detectives, said investigators had found a .22-caliber bullet and fingerprints linking Mr. Francis to the shooting, which left two large pools of blood on East 86th Street at Ditmas Avenue in East Flatbush, a block of small two-story Tudor-style town houses.

Chief DeMartino said Mr. Francis had been identified in a lineup, but refused to say by whom. The police also said they found a jogging suit in a yard they believe was on the gunman's escape route. Inside a pocket, the police said, were two keys to Gary Francis's residence. Near the discarded outfit was a .22-caliber derringer, said a police spokesman, Sgt. Edward Burns.

The police initially arrested four people in a garage that the car had just left. Among them was Mr. Francis's brother, Paul. Investigators speculated that the car - which did not have license plates, bumpers and a grille - was being driven away after being stripped.

Witness Account Differs

Chief DeMartino said Paul Francis directed officers to Bruce Johnson, who was taken into custody at 6 A.M. at his home, at 462 East 92d Street in East Flatbush. But Chief DeMartino said that Paul Francis had named Mr. Johnson to protect his brother and that Mr. Johnson was ''not a suspect in this case and is not being arrested in this case.''

Sergeant Burns said the others arrested at the garage were Anthony Rowe, 23, of 227 East 86th Street; Ian Moore, 19, of 1030 Willmohr Street, and Kenneth Anderson, 25, of 1059 Willmohr Street. They, as well as Paul Francis, were charged with criminal possession of stolen property - a car similar to the one Gary Francis was driving. Sergeant Burns said they were stripping that car when the shot that wounded Officer Ortiz echoed down the block.

Some details of the police account of the shooting differed from that of a witness, an ambulance driver who had parked his car on the street and was walking home after working the 6 P.M.-to-3 A.M. shift.

In both versions Officer Ortiz and his partner, Sgt. Thomas Landato, were driving through the neighborhood in a patrol car when they turned left from Ditmas Avenue onto 86th Street, a one-way street, and saw the car, a 1984 Honda Civic, coming toward them. Its grille and bumpers were missing, and the car was dark; its headlights had also been removed.

Officer 'Never Drew His Gun'

In the police account, Officer Ortiz and Sergeant Landato stopped the car and asked the driver to get out. The driver said he did not have the registration papers but motioned to the garage down the street, saying he could find them there. Chief DeMartino said all three men walked a short distance before Sergeant Landato left Officer Ortiz alone with the suspect and headed up the street, presumably to check on the registration.

A police spokesman, Sgt. Raymond O'Donnell, said Sergeant Landato was walking toward the garage when the shot was fired. The sergeant whirled around and saw Officer Ortiz slumped on the pavement, blood gushing from his neck, Sergeant O'Donnell said. The driver was running away, a gun in his hand.

''The officer never drew his gun,'' Chief DeMartino said. The witness, the ambulance driver, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said the sergeant was in the patrol car when the shot was fired. The sergeant had returned to the patrol car after copying the vehicle identification number from the dashboard of the Honda, the witness said.

Twisting and Wincing

The witness said he saw the driver motion down the street with his right arm and start to walk away. Officer Ortiz followed a few feet behind. The driver took two or three short steps, the witness said, before crooking his right hand into the left side of his windbreaker. The driver then spun around with a gun in his hand, the witness said, and fired one shot.

Officer Ortiz, the witness said, was twisting and wincing, as if to avoid the bullet. Chief DeMartino said the officer staggered back to the patrol car. An ambulance arrived as other officers who had answered Sergeant Landato's emergency call were trying to help him into the patrol car.

At the hospital, Dr. Salvatore J. A. Sclafani, a radiologist in the trauma department, said that Officer Ortiz had no measurable blood pressure when he was brought in. But Dr. Sclafani said a surgeon, Dr. Thomas Scalea, put two fingers in Officer Ortiz's mouth to stop the bleeding. The bullet had entered just below the left ear, severing the internal carotid artery and slicing through the mouth near the tonsils. It fragmented when it hit his teeth, Dr. Sclafani said. He inserted a tube containing a coil into an artery in Officer Ortiz's leg and threaded it through other arteries to the carotid artery, where the coil was used to help stop the bleeding.

'A Calming Effect'

Officer Ortiz joined the Police Department 17 years ago and had spent most of his career in the 67th Precinct. He worked the midnight shift every night. ''He had a calming effect,'' said an inspector who insisted on anonymity. ''He was a quiet, gentle police officer on the street.''

Officer Ortiz's wife, Nilsa, was flown to the hospital in a police helicopter. They have three children: Nilsa, 19, who police officials said is in the Air Force; Valentine, 14, and Manual, 9.

The suspect's father, Boysie Francis, said his son Gary had been on parole for two years on a gun-possession charge. Gary Francis had been jumped by four men at a party and shot one of the assailants, Mr. Francis said. The police arrested him, but all charges were dropped except weapons possession.

Mr. Francis said Paul used to work for a messenger service and Gary worked in construction from time to time.

''Every night they're out on the streets,'' Mr. Francis said, ''but I can't see these guys in this thing. They're not bad kids, but the company they walk in gets them into these things.''